Lawmakers are expected to vote on two immigration bills in the House this week ― and while neither has garnered Democrats’ support, Republicans may be able to pass one anyway.
House members plan to vote Thursday on two broad packages meant to address a range of immigration issues. A bill sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) is considered to be a more hard-line, anti-immigration measure, and one pushed by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has been sold as a “compromise” between moderate and conservative Republicans.
Can the bills pass?
While leading Democrats have said they wouldn’t support either bill ― with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) calling Ryan’s “compromise” bill “doomed to fail” ― Republicans may still have enough votes to pass one of them, since the party currently controls both houses of Congress.
Even if legislation passed the House, it would still have a long road to be signed into law. First it would go to the Senate, where Democrats have more leverage and lawmakers have repeatedly failed to pass immigration bills, including earlier this year. Then any legislation would have to get President Donald Trump’s sign-off. After Trump initially said last week he wouldn’t support Ryan’s compromise bill, the White House later said the president would sign it.

By all reports, the House “moderate” immigration bill is hardly moderate at all. It would cut legal immigration dramatically and punish Dreamers.
It’s hard to believe that so-called House Republican moderates could vote for such a party line bill that is doomed to fail.
What would the bills do for Dreamers?
Both bills are meant to address the status of so-called Dreamers ― young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and whose protections have been at risk since the Trump administration announced last year that it was ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The DACA program’s fate has been caught up in the courts ever since, leaving hundreds of thousands of young immigrants at risk of losing deportation relief.
While Goodlatte’s hard-line measure would give only temporary protections to Dreamers, as well as significantly cut down legal immigration, Ryan’s bill would provide Dreamers with a gradual route to a more permanent status ― though it would also cut back legal immigration and dedicate billions of dollars to funding construction of Trump’s border wall. (More details on each bill below.)
What about family separations?
The vote comes amid growing outrage over the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which refers all migrants crossing the border illegally for criminal prosecution, leading to at least 2,000 immigrant kids being separated from their parents at the border since mid-April.
Both Republicans and Democrats have expressed opposition to the family separations and have proposed separate bills to end the policy. But the White House has insisted that Trump would only support more comprehensive legislation on immigration, including priorities he’s long pushed, like funding the border wall, limiting asylum seekers and reducing visa programs.
When it comes to family separations, the compromise bill from House Republican leaders includes a fix, but it’s one not likely to satisfy Democrats. It would let immigrant families stay together by allowing the government to keep both children and parents in federal detention until cases were resolved ― which can take weeks, months or even years.

House Speaker Paul Ryan wants to cut holes in the social safety net during the 2018 legislative session, taking aim at programs poor people depend on to survive, Fox News reported.
“We’re going to get back at reforming these entitlements. And we’re going to take on welfare reform, which is another big entitlement program, where we’re basically paying people, able-bodied people, not to work and depriving them with all these disincentives from going to the workforce,” he said.
Fresh off passing tax reform legislation in December, the GOP wants to roll that momentum in 2018. The tax overhaul, which mainly benefits corporations and wealthy individuals, adds $1.4 trillion to the deficit. Now, the Republicans are looking for ways slash the debt they created. The solution to them is axing government health care programs and social services spending. “Frankly, it’s the health care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt, so we spend more time on the health care entitlements — because that’s really where the problem lies, fiscally speaking,” Ryan said on Ross Kaminsky’s talk radio show.

Here’s what to expect:1. Medicare
Yes, Medicare is on the table, even though the GOP has long feared a backlash from seniors. Ryan has been talking with President Donald Trump about the need to cut the program. “I think the president is understanding that choice and competition works everywhere in health care, especially in Medicare,” the House Speaker said.
their totally unnecessary $1.5 trillion tax cut for the rich the GOP will spend the next ten years saying we must cut Medicare, Medicaid, & Social Security because the deficit is too damn high. Never let the American people forget their tax cuts caused that deficit.

2. Medicaid
In addition to funding cuts, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a federal agency within the Department of Health, has already signaled that changes are coming to the health care program for poor people. The agency, in a departure from President Barack Obama’s approach, is recommending that states establish a work requirement for certain Medicaid beneficiaries.

3. Food stamps
Reigning in the food stamp program is a perennial goal for Republicans. They see an opportunity through the pretext of reducing the budget deficit explosion they created. On top of cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the GOP plans to give states more flexibility in how they administer the program. As with Medicaid, they also want to add a work requirement for receiving food stamps and direct cash assistance to the poor.